Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe

A father-of-three who was found with a microscopic speck of cannabis stuck to the bottom of one of his shoes has been sentenced to four years in a Dubai prison.

Jailed: Keith Brown had a speck of cannabis on his shoe

Keith Brown, a council youth development officer, was travelling through the United Arab Emirates on his way back to England when he was stopped as he walked through Dubai's main airport.

A search by customs officials uncovered a speck of cannabis weighing just 0.003g - so small it would be invisible to the naked eye and weighing less than a grain of sugar - on the tread of one of his shoes.

Dubai International Airport is a major hub for the Middle East and thousands of Britons pass through it every year to holiday in the glamorous beach and shopping haven.

But many of those tourists and business travellers are likely to be unaware of the strict zero-tolerance drugs policy in the UAE.

One man has even been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport. Painkiller codeine is also banned.

If suspicious of a traveller, customs officials can use high-tech equipment to uncover even the slightest trace of drugs.

Mr Brown was detained and arrested in September last year and has been held in a cell with three other men in the city prison ever since.

This week the youth worker, who has two young children and a partner at home in Smethwick, West Midlands, was sentenced to four years in prison.

A 25-year-old Briton who was found with a similar speck in one pocket as he arrived on holiday has been awaiting sentence since November.

Meanwhile a Big Brother TV executive has so far been held without charge for five days after being arrested for possessing the health supplement melatonin.

The authorities claim to have discovered 0.01g of hashish in his luggage.

Last night Mr Brown's brother Lee said his case "defied belief".

"For that sort of amount common sense should prevail, from where it was found it was obviously something that had been crushed on the floor - it could have come from anywhere."

Rastafarian Mr Brown had been returning from a short trip to Ethiopia, where one of his children lives and where he owns property.

He was travelling with his partner Imani, who was also stopped and detained for more than a week.

Normally he flew direct to and from the UK, but decided to stop off in Dubai.

"He was incensed when he called me," said driving instructor Lee, 57. "It would be funny if the circumstances weren't so unpleasant.

"Bugs are crawling out of his mattress when he's sleeping. His family are frantic with worry and can't call him."

Last night campaign group Fair Trials International advised visitors to Dubai and Abu Dhabi to "take extreme caution".

Chief Executive Catherine Wolthuizen said: "We have seen a steep increase in such cases over the last 18 months.

"Customs authorities are using highly sensitive new equipment to conduct extremely thorough searches on travellers and if they find any amount - no matter how minute - it will be enough to attract a mandatory four-year prison sentence."

Mrs Wolthuizen added: "We even have reports of the imprisonment of a Swiss man for 'possession' of three poppy seeds on his clothing after he ate a bread roll at Heathrow.

"What many travellers may not realise is that they can be deemed to be in possession of such banned substances if they can be detected in their urine or bloodstream, or even in tiny, trace amounts on their person."

Only two months after Mr Brown was stopped economics graduate Robert Dalton was detained in almost identical circumstances.

Mr Dalton, from Gravesend, on Kent was with two friends when he was stopped and asked to empty his pockets.

Officials found 0.03g of cannabis in a small amount of fluff. He is currently on trial and if convicted, is likely receive a four-year prison sentence.

Held: A campaign is underway to secure the release of Cat Le-Huy from a Dubai jail

Last night his brother Peter, 26, told how it took 24 hours to find out why he had been stopped.

"As we understand, the amount of cannabis was barely visible to the human eye and was at the bottom of the pocket of an old pair of jeans.

"He's not a drug user, but he goes clubbing and the speck was so small."

Last week Cat Le-Huy, a London-based German national, was arrested on arrival at the airport.

Mr Le-Huy, 31, head of technology with Big Brother production company Endemol, was arrested on suspicion of possessing illegal drugs after customs officers found melatonin, a health supplement used for jet lag available over the counter both in Dubai and in the US.

Authorities also claim they discovered fragments in one of his bags which they believe to be hashish. Fair Trials International said the amount was 0.01g.

Women 'take 46 per cent more sick days than men'

As any woman will tell you, men are experts in representing the sniffles as full-on flu.

Can't cope: But the study from Helsinki says illness is much more characteristically female than thought

However, when it comes to taking days off work, it seems that the female of the species is sicklier than the male.

A study of 7,000 council workers revealed that women took 46 per cent more short-term sick leave than their male counterparts.

The researchers said the findings were particularly significant because days taken off to care for sick children - which are thought to account for many of women's absences from work - were discounted from the figures.

The analysis by the University of Helsinki in Finland showed that women were 46 per cent more likely to be off work for between one to three days, which does not require a sick note.

They were also a third more likely to take slightly longer periods of sick leave, which required a medical certificate.

Researchers said that the reasons for the difference could include women finding their work more physically demanding.

Alternatively, they might simply be more organised about seeing a doctor and getting signed off work when ill.

The average UK worker takes six sick days a year - down from a peak of 9.1 in 1991.

Probe launched after air stewardess performs topless mid-air striptease for the captain

An investigation has been launched after a video of a topless French air stewardess performing a sexy striptease for the captain while the plane was flying was leaked on to the internet.

Despite the plane being in the air - and with several hundred passengers presumably blissfully unaware of what is going on - the sexy cabin attendant removes her bra and lets the captain and co-pilot get hands on.

The video was leaked onto the internet by members of the French crew and has sparked a major probe at several European airlines to discover the crew members responsible.

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Holding pattern: The grinning captain fondles the stewardess during the flight

In-flight entertainment: The sexy stewardess stripped off to enliven the flight for the captain and co-pilot

Read more...

• This is your pilot speaking... and crying and swearing. And demanding to talk to God!

In the video, which lasts a little over two minutes, the stewardess, who even appears to be wearing a wedding ring, first performs a sexy striptease for the captain.

She then removes her bra and the captain fondles and gropes the stewardess as he grins at the camera.

Get ready for takeoff: The mystery woman poses for the camera

Casting 'come-hither' looks at the camera, the pretty crew member at one stage even lifts her skirt to show her underwear to the crew.

The plane was allegedly on a short-haul trip to London.

Helping hand: A fellow air stewardess assists with the removal of the bra

• Actually, this isn't interesting, it's just plain titilation. Meh.
  

Britain's first A to Z: The amazing 14th-century map of Britain

Your'e looking at the oldest surviving map of Britain, dating from around 1360.

And, give or take a bit of poetic licence north of the border, it's startlingly accurate.

There are the Severn, Thames and Humber, the loop of the Wear in Durham and the Thames estuary, all easily recognisable.

The Gough Map contains 600 cities and towns and 3,000 miles of roads Click to enlarge

As are the more than 600 cities, towns and villages, almost 200 rivers, and a rudimentary road network marked with thin red lines and extending to some 3,000 miles.

Along with countless hills, mountains, lakes, forests - New Forest and Sherwood - and even Hadrian's Wall, labelled with its popular name, murus pictorum, the Picts' Wall.

The significance is enormous, as a new book reveals.

"It is the first modern map of Britain and the oldest surviving map which shows the coastline in recognisable form," says author Nick Millea, map librarian at Oxford University's Bodleian Library.

"All previous maps gave a theological interpretation, showing how Britain fitted into the Christian world.

"The Hereford Mappa Mundi from approximately the same time has Jerusalem as the centre of the world.

"Geography just wasn't important."

Named after topographer Richard Gough - who bought it in 1774 for half-a-crown (121/2p) and bequeathed it to the Bodleian Library - the map is drawn in pen, ink and coloured washes on two skins of vellum and measures almost 4ft long by 2ft wide.

Almost as surprising as the detail and the accuracy (if you discount misshapen Scotland) is the startling orientation - the original map was drafted to face east towards Jerusalem, rather than the north, because its topographers had not entirely abandoned their theological way of thinking.

On closer examination the map shows rivers, towns and coastline

In its correct position it looks rather like an old mildewed boot with Wales as the heel, Scotland as the toe and East Anglia sticking up into the air.

"There are 600-odd places and, if you compare it with a modern map, most of them are in pretty much the right spot," says Millea.

"We don't know whether they did the coastline first then filled in the interior, or whether it was done by word of mouth - a verbal map - so they put in London then worked outwards, adding places they knew."

Nick Crane, topographer and presenter of TV series Map Man, thinks they may have used an astrolabe - a highly technical instrument used by classical astronomers, navigators and astrologers which involved checking the horizon, the stars, the sun and all sorts of angles.

"This could be the beginning of mathematical map-making - some of the points of latitude have probably been measured through astronomy," he says.

But why do they get Scotland so wrong? The Clyde and Forth and Edinburgh are recognisable, but the rest is all a bit of a mess.

"It was created at a time when Scotland was a foreign country and little was known about it so they improvised," says Millea.

"That's why there are so few place names north of the border."

While the map in the Bodleian Library dates from the mid-14th century, experts think it was copied from an earlier map, from around 1280, which didn't survive.

"Geographically, it fits with the time of Edward I. All the castles of his conquest of Wales are there.

"And the few Scottish place names shown were around at the time of Edward I, but not much later."

This may account for a few mistakes. Cardigan Bay is missing.

Cornwall extends too far west, Orkney's too big and Dartmouth and part of central Wales are shown as lakes rather than upland areas.

Lewes in Sussex pops up twice.

But regardless of these errors, the Gough map represents a massive leap forward.

As well as showing the geography, it gives a snapshot of England and Wales at the time and an idea of the contrasting fortunes of places.

Some towns, such as Blakeney in Norfolk which was once a thriving port, are now tiny settlements compared with their apparent importance in the 14th century.

In contrast Manchester appears to be no bigger than Charlesworth, a little village in the Peak District.

The Gough map is one of this country's most important historical documents - it formed the basis for almost all the maps of Britain for 200 years.

And with its green rivers, red-roofed cathedrals, and extraordinary detail, it is surely one of the most aesthetically pleasing.

The Gough Map: The Earliest Road Map of Britain? by Nick Millea. ISBN 9781851240227. £25.

Shell's 'obscene' £13.9billion profit is biggest ever by British company

Shell smashed all-time British company profit records today, posting 2007 earnings of $27.5billion (£13.9billion), and immediately ran into a storm with union leaders, who are demanding the Government hits the oil giant with a windfall tax.

Shell's profit surge - it is now making a staggering $75million (£38million) a day - on the back of a booming oil price that touched $100 a barrel this winter, was labelled as "obscene" by Tony Woodley of Unite, the UK's largest trade union, as Britons struggle with soaring energy costs.

"Shell shareholders are doing very nicely while the rest of us are paying the price and struggling," said Woodley.

Shell's profits come as prices at the petrol pump rocket

"There are no problems with profits, but consumers should question the excessive mega-profits of the oil companies in light of UK companies and hauliers saying they are being pressed on high fuel and energy costs, pensioners struggling to pay energy bills and motorists struggling to fill their petrol tanks."

Shell angrily rejected the claims, arguing that a windfall tax in Britain would be illogical because the vast amount of its business is done around the world.

Shell's Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer called the profits "satisfactory" as production levels fell for the fifth consecutive year.

Responding to Mr Woodley's attack Mr van der Veer said that in the UK taxes accounted for more than half the cost of petrol at the pumps. "We have no influence over that," he said.

The company also claimed it is as good as matching its annual profits with huge investments - between $24 billion and $25 billion of capital expenditure this year - to find new energy sources.

"We are investing a lot of money to have the energy production to satisfy the energy demand of the world," said finance director Peter Voser.

Shell Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer at a press conference today

"We are investing for the future of society so that people can live the life they want. That is our job."

Despite the surge in full-year profits, up 9 per cent from 2006, there was disappointment with the figures in the City.

Analysts had been pencilling in underlying "clean" profits for the fourth quarter of more than $5.8billion, but the figure came in at $5.7 billion.

Upstream production, which accounts for more than half of profits, averaged out at 3.315 million barrels of oil or their gas equivalent a day, just squeezing in to the forecast of between 3.3 million and 3.5 million.

That itself had been a major downgrade from the 3.8 million Shell had previously predicted. The company today said it expected production levels to fall again in 2008.

The biggest issue for Shell is the shutout from wells it has been co-producing in Nigeria - potentially 800,000 barrels a day - where local militia continue to demand that the world's major companies quit the Niger Delta.

Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, said: "These are satisfactory results. We have made good progress in 2007, launched new projects upstream and downstream, and achieved exploration success."

The fourth-quarter dividend is up 11 per cent at 36 US cents, and the company said it would be increasing this year's first-quarter payout by a similar amount to 40 cents.

It's miserable Monday: How to think positive on the bleakest day of the year

By BECKY BARROW

The weather is appalling, the Christmas credit card bills are landing on the doorstep . . . and you've already broken your New Year's resolutions.

But don't worry, if you can just get through today, things will start to look up.

Monday, January 21, you see, has been officially declared the gloomiest day of the year.

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An expert on depression has devised a formula using factors such as debt and end of festive cheer that is said to prove today is the gloomiest day of the year

Psychologist Cliff Arnall, an expert in depression, has used a mathematical formula to pinpoint today as Blue Monday.

He says it is the day when six factors come together to leave us at our most miserable.

They are: the dank and gloomy weather; Christmas debt; a feeling of monotony after the Christmas cheer has faded; broken New Year's resolutions; low levels of motivation; and a desperate feeling that you need to take action to improve your drab existence.

Millions are also still struggling to get back into the routine of working after a long Christmas break - and many will not have their next holiday until August.

Read more...

• Hugh Laurie down in the dumps on return to London

Blue Monday may be compounded by the fact that, according to other research, many people get their worst night's sleep on Sunday because they dread the prospect of going back to work the following day.

Mr Arnall, a former academic at Cardiff University, whose research was commissioned by personal development company Advance Performance, said one of the best ways to beat the blues was simply to stop moaning.

"If you are a regular whinger or moaner about the weather or minor ailments, stop," he said. "It is boring and you are boring.

"Focus on the good things you do have in your life. If one of your limbs does not work, focus on the three that do."

Other tips include: stop seeing those you do not like; start saying "no" to unreasonable requests; and help others by doing voluntary work.

Researchers say many workers lose up to one hour's sleep on Sunday night because they hate the idea of returning to work on Monday morning.

Difficult bosses, looming deadlines and important presentations can all keep workers awake on a Sunday night.

The best night is Friday, when the working week is over and many are looking forward to the prospect of a relaxing weekend.

Leigh McCarron, of hotel chain Travelodge, which commissioned the research, said: "Millions of workers are starting the week tired and unmotivated.

"One in ten say their sleeping patterns are at their worst in January as they return to work after Christmas and feel unable to cope with increased workloads."

Graffiti artist Banksy strikes again - in Bethlehem

Elusive graffiti artist Banksy has struck again, this time in the Holy Land with a series of stencilled works on the security wall in Bethlehem.

The Bristol-born artist has adorned the West Bank barrier with six new images, including a dove wearing a flak jacket and a soldier being frisked by a young girl.

It coincides with the opening tomorrow of a new exhibition in Bethlehem which is aimed at bringing people to the West Bank to see the situation there first hand.

Banksy has adorned the West Bank barrier with six new images

Banksy has previously painted on the 436-mile long concrete wall that borders large sections of the occupied territories.

Constructed by Israel, the barrier has been condemned by activists and declared illegal by the United Nations.

It now showcases the work of possibly the most well-known and popular graffiti artists around.

Also among the latest additions are a soldier checking the papers of a donkey and one of the artist's trademark rats next to a watch tower.

Banksy, whose work was originally seen in Brighton and London's East End, is one of a number of celebrated graffiti artists who have daubed the West Bank wall over the last few weeks.

Santa's Ghetto will be open from tomorrow to Christmas Eve.

Fans of Banksy, known to include Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, will be able to pick up original work by the artist but will have to visit the exhibition in person.

Banksy said: "If it is safe enough for a bunch of sissy artists then it is safe enough for anyone."